Companion Species (Is this a pipe?)
Marie Watt, Citizen of the Seneca Nation / American, born 1967
2020
Reclaimed wool blankets, embroidery floss, thread
Overall: 54 5/16 × 148 in. (138 × 376 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Miriam H. and S. Sidney Stoneman Acquisition Fund and the Acquisition and Preservation of Native American Art Fund
2021.4
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
21st century
Object Name
Textile
Research Area
Textiles and Costumes
Native American
Native American: Woodlands
Not on view
Inscriptions
Initialled, in red thread, lower left: MW
Label
Marie Watt’s Companion Species series considers symbiotic relationships between humans and nature and the ways in which our actions might change if we were to center learning from other beings. Drawing on Seneca and Haudenosaunee creation stories, where animals become the first teachers, many of the works in this series feature canine figures. The canines in this work also reference the creation of Rome and the story of Remus and Romulus. Here, the twins acknowledge each other, and there is a pipe occupying the space between them. This pipe references René Magritte’s 1929 surrealist painting The Treachery of Images, also referred to as Ceci n’est pas une pipe or This is not a pipe. Unlike Magritte’s declarative title, Watt’s poses a question—Is this a pipe?—inviting curiosity regarding how we relate to the world around us.
From the 2026 exhibition American Pop, curated by Jami Powell (Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs & Curator of Indigenous Art), Evonne Fuselier (Hood Museum Board of Advisors Mutual Learning Fellow, Curatorial), and Beatriz Yanes Martinez (former Hood Museum Board of Advisors Mutual Learning Fellow, Curatorial, 2021-2024)
Exhibition History
American Pop, Churchill and Dorothy Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 13, 2025 - November 7, 2025.
Each/Other: Marie Watt and Cannupa Hanska Luger, Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, May 23-August 22, 2021; Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, September 25-December 12, 2021; Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, January 1-April 30, 2022.
Provenance
MARC STRAUS Gallery, New York, New York; sold to present collection, 2021.
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